Material Witness – 15th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial |
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14 April - 13 June 2004
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| John Curtin Gallery
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What is it about textiles that makes you want to reach out and touch them? Material Witness explores the materiality, versatility and vitality of today’s contemporary textiles practice. This exhibition will coincide with the space between conference that centres on the new creative and theoretical potentialities that have emerged from the blurring of the boundaries between art, fashion, textiles and design. This event provides an international forum for the presentation of new ideas, current research and an in-depth exchange of ideas and experiences.
Material Witness showcases the innovative practice of Australia’s foremost fibre and textile artists. The curator, Robyn Daw, has selected works from twenty-two artists representing urban and regional areas and all states and territories in Australia. The works presented come from both established and emerging artists, including those from Indigenous and other cultural backgrounds.
The works showcased in this exhibition were developed using familiar materials, techniques and objects in unexpected and unconventional ways. “Each artist’s work stems from individual motivation and exploration, and from a knowledge that the material one chooses to use is imbued with cultural, social and personal significance,†said Daw. The selection of works is a mix of functional pieces; works that make political, social or environmental comment; and works that investigate the aesthetic of textiles. The results are elegant, subversive, luscious, traditional, innovative, engaging and fun.
The title of the exhibition, ‘material witness,’ is a legal term that refers to a witness whose evidence is likely to have an important influence on the outcome of a trial. In this case, each of the artists can be considered important in the future direction of fibre textiles. The artist’s choice of materials and manner of construction is crucial to each of the displayed works – both are essential in the conceptual development of the work and its eventual physical form. Material can thus be seen as a witness to the artist’s own investigations, their place of origin or their ideas.
Material Witness encompasses multiple perspectives of fibre textiles, including the innovative use of traditional materials and techniques, the physical presence of the works as artefact and the power of textiles to awaken a diverse range of human emotions and experiences. In other words, these works explore ideas that engage with the complex and personal meanings of material. Material Witness provides a platform to discuss and debate the meanings of material, what and how it witnesses, and what it means to each of us.
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Artists:
Sieglinde Karl, Rosemary O’Rourke, Rosie Barkus, Greg Leong, Deborah Porch, Irene Briant, Karin Lettau, Nalda Searles, Annabelle Collett, Sara Lindsay, David Sequeira, Beth Hatton, Mary Marabamba, Patrick Snelling, Pat Hoffie, Ruth McDougall, Louise Weaver, Abigail Howells, Vera Möller, Jane Whiteley
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